Then - 1999 (when I started EQ)
I was newly 30 and working as a computer programmer.
I had two daughters. One was 9 and the other was 7.
I had been married 10 years to my wife who played on Emarr from its inception. I started in July of 99.
I had one dog...a 3-year-old corgi-dachsund mix.
I drove around in a 99 Dodge Ram 1500 extra cab.

Now
I am newly 40 and teach high school math.
I have two daughters. One just finished her second year in college and just joined the Air Force (98 on her ASVAB btw), and the other is a junior in high school.
June 24 will be my 20th anniversary to my wife, who plays WoW...but not as much as me.
I still have that dog. She's 13 now and has lots of grey hair...and a skin problem.
I drive an '03 Hyundai Elantra. I gave the truck to my parents.

Please...share your "then and now" as it related to when you started EQ and where you are now.

Then (1999 - when I also started playing EQ)
I was 27.
I was living with my mother.
I was single.
I drove a '97 Ford Escort.
I made cabinet doors on a CNC out of medium density fiberboard at a molding plant.
I started with a half-elf warrior (Tegas), then switched over to a wood elf druid (Carathos) in EQ.

Now
I am 37. (duh)
I have my own house.
I'm still single and kinda like it that way.
I drive a '94 Toyota Corolla (older, but better car)
I am the systems administrator for the largest public school district in the state.
I play WoW with an 80 death knight, 73 hunter, 48 paladin and 27 druid.

__________________"I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth." - Umberto Eco

"Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear." - Thomas Jefferson

Then - 2000
I was single
I was living on my own in at apartment
I was a desktop support tech making not a lot
I drove a '98 Grand Am
I was 32

Now - 2009
I'm affianced
I own a home (OK, the bank owns most of it, but I'm working on that)
I'm back to desktop support after being laid off as a Windows Admin, but am making $20K more a year
I drive an '07 Mazda 3
I'm 39

I dabbled with a few characters, but ended with Drysdale, a lvl 62 Druid in good standing.

__________________
"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."
-Robert A. Heinlein

Now
- Married, three daughters, several cats (a few of the '99 cats, but a few new ones too). 42 years old.
- Electrical Engineer, designing chips & related software. Same company for 20 years. Oddly enough, while stuff seems the same, there's not a lot of commonality in the details compared to 10 years back.
- Driving an '01 Mazda Miata
- House in newer area of Missouri City, TX (SW of Houston)

Tried WoW a bit, but not much (can't even remember what class I played - evil undead guy who summons pets and DoTs.) Been doing Wii Fit lately.

Then: Dec, 2000
I was 39
I was married with a 21 year old stepson
I had three dogs and a cat
I was a software engineer working on water quality analyzers
I was driving a '93 Mazda Miata
I owned a house

Now:
I am 47
I am divorced, living with my girl friend
I have two dogs and a cat, one of the dogs I had back when I started, a 13.5 year old 45lb mutt
I still work at the same place doing much the same thing
I still drive my '93 Mazda Miata, but added a '95 Subaru Legacy wagon with even more miles on it than my Miata
I rent
I still play EQ, same character, much less than I used to, I also play some EQ2

I had several children. Most were older than I was. (not literally - no actual children of my own, but I take care of those close to me)

I drove around in a '97 Toyota Tacoma.

I weighed between 110 and 125 pounds.

I lived in a house built for me in '95.

Now: Whatever it says on the calendar

I am a college senior (dropped out in my 4th year, stayed away for almost a decade, went back for a different degree).

I realized I'm terrible at picking up signals from girls, since a lot of girls I assumed were just friends turned out to be interested and I was completely oblivious (a lot of fucking good a supposed genius intellect does there, huh?).

I drive an '07 Toyota Tacoma due to the previous one getting totalled by a head-on collision with a '94 Suburban (the Suburban looked like it got hit by a tank - I win).

I still live in the same house, although I briefly looked into getting a loft for personal projects. Luckily I didn't find one and sign a lease, since my job went buh-bye less than 2 months after that.

I am about to go bomb the harbor, at which point I may be about 5 pounds short of my target.

__________________SMS Text Responder - Convenience and Safety for any Android phone, ad-free.If you have any questions that aren't answered by the app description, feel free to ask. I have no financial stake in it, but I am the primary tester.

I didn't own a car as I was working and living in a city with good public transit. Plus only made $35k so buying a car would have required significant sacrifice. My then-g/f and I shared her 2000 Jetta VR6 (very fun car until it went off-warranty).

I worked in business development for a ~50 person pharma consulting startup that failed in April 2002 (I played plenty of EQ during my first of two unemployments thanks to startups).

I rolled Hormadrune, thanks name generator, and he remained my main throughout my EQ career which was interrupted for 6 months in 2004 and ended in summer 2007. He was the only character I ever level-capped, though I also had a 72? cleric before I retired to go with my 30s/40s shammy, monk, and necro.

Now

I am 31.

I own a house in Connecticut.

I'm married (5 years this month) with a son who will be two in October. We've also had two miscarriages that bookended the healthy pregnancy. Hopefully we'll have better luck when we try again as despite being early in both cases, it was very difficult.

I drive an '03 Honda Civic, a car I was initially bummed to be buying (we also have an '02 CRV and needed to add a 2nd car- I was aiming higher at the time than Civics ) but have grown quite fond of. Another 50hp and it would be the perfect commuter car.

I've since got my MBA and work in corporate finance for a large pharma company.

I play WoW with an 80 resto/enhancement shaman (main) and 80 prot warrior (very much backburnered at least until I get epic flight on the spacegoat). I'm really enjoying the game right now and am having to be really careful not to fall back into my old patterns of gaming enough to be a second full-time job.

I drove a Jeep Cherokee (1993 model) which was one of the best vehicles I ever owned

Had two kids in elementary school

Owned a bunch of dot com stock that looked like it would go up in value forever

Was working on creating multiple personalities through drinking copious amounts of booze

My favorite game memory turns out to be my first night in game. I had been playing Unreal Tournament on-line for a while and I knew nothing about MMORPGs. My initial thought was that I had to "kill" other PCs in order to gain experience and when I tried it didn't work. So, in a moment of brilliant retardation I trained a bunch of skeletons to newbie log in Nektulous and watched as about five PCs were wiped out, the whole time I was looking at my screen to see if I would get game notifications I had received experience points. Instead, I rightfully got a bunch of PMs telling me what a tard I was. Needless to say, I figured out that there were no points on EMarr server to be had for killing PCs. I was a bit dissapointed.

Now...

I am still married to the same wonderful wife. Been married 23 years. Why she sticks with me I don't know.

I don't drink heavily anymore. Drunkeness and binge drinking was working hard against me on all fronts in my life. You all saw some of that here on SV.

I became a Christian through the immense mercy and grace of God.

I now drive a 2003 Jeep Wrangler which is even better than my old Cherokee. It rocks!

I don't work for anyone anymore. I now own a business and am incorporated in the State of Washington.

When the dot com bubble burst I lost about 80% of my portfolio. The IRS followed up behind the bubble burst and cleaned up any stragglers with a series of audits. Thank you "Uncle Sam"!

I play EQ 2 on occasion. I still can't seem to kick my gaming habit totally. Not really a bad thing.

I traded all my multiple personalities in for "Lurikeen the Christian" some here find boring.

I am now 45. My daughter is in college (I joined the NRA because of it. LOL) and my son is in junior high.

__________________
"All I said was... that bit of halibut is good enough for Jehovah." —Monty Python's "Life of Brian"

THEN
Started in November 2000.
I was 35.
I was married to my first wife. We both played EQ on the same comp.
My wife then was an adjunct professor at a college.
I had two dogs, one still with me, the other passed away.
I owned one home and drove a 1995 Grand Am.
I was prepress manager at my newspaper which was a NY Times paper.
No kids, but two miscarriages.

NOW
I am 44
I am married to my second wife.
I have two dogs, she has one cat and two birds.
We are a commuter marriage.
We own two homes.
I have an '03 Dodge Ram, a '72 VW Beetle and an '08 Ford Focus She has an '02 Subaru Forrester.
I am Production Director now and my paper has been sold out of the NY Times company to a private owner. My wife is Sr. Art Director at a cable TV network.
I weigh less than I did then but am still out of shape, although I do weights twice a week.
I don't play any games but miss EQ a little bit but hated the grind.
No kids for either of us.

Then:
Started EQ sometime in 2001 I think, 1 month before Luclin anyway.
Had a GF, had a cat.
Had a 1990 Mitsubishi Galant.
Was 22 and just started going back to college.
Had no kids.
Played only a druid.
Lived in MI.

Now:
I'm about 32.
Have a different girlfriend. Have a weiner dog.
Have a 1996 Ford Taurus.
Finished my degree. Now a buyer of produce for a large company.
Played WoW for about a year, figured out it sucked and quit. Played a Rogue.
Still have no kids that anyone has ever told me I need to support, couple of questions out there.
Live in Miami. Rent.

Then: played eq a bit when it was beta deployed, came home messed up played some more drove my wife crazy, got deployed. Came home messed up again (didn't learn the first time that it hurts).
Married with 4 kids, 2 cats.
Owned a home in Washington, rented in Oklahoma

Now
retired from Army, self employed.
still married coming up on 21 years, adopted 2 daughters, 3 in college now.
Still messed up but walking so not complaining a bit
Still play EQ when I have time.
We now have a Weiner dog, and same 2 cats, the oldest one likes to tease the dog.

Started EQ ‘round about October 2001. Rolled my first toon, a mage named 'Shylodog' and kept with him through my time in the game. Also rolled a Shaman, 'Feelicks". Switched to EQ2 November, 2004 after major issues with my guild that I co-led (some issues due to my medication abuse).

29 years old.

Married to my second wife.

One daughter – 5 years old.

Drove an Isuzu Rodeo.

Buying a double-wide manufactured home, while renting a lot in a park.

Living in Reno, NV.

Worked at CompUSA as the Manager of Technical Services.

Now:

No longer play online games (and no longer take my prescription pain meds).

Soon to be 37 years old.

Married to my third wife.

One daughter (lives with her mom) – 13 years old, two step-sons (one is 18 and lives in Washington, the other is 8 and lives week-on/week-off with us), and a new baby boy due this October.

Drive a 2004 Dodge Ram 1500.

Renting a 3bd 2½ba house.

Living in Reno, NV.

Working for the state of Nevada at the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine as an IT Technician IV.

__________________
Shylodog Wamphyri
66 Arch Convoker
(Retired)

Originally Posted by Hormadrune

Write it down- Chuk made me lolirl

Originally Posted by Drysdale

To bumbleroot: Know what? You're right. I DID misread your statement and I DO apologize.

Started September '99. Was unemployed, just finished a dip. Eng (Manuf.). Age 40. Played Barb War., Kissane (Riptrace) joined Blades of Honor shortly after dual wield or dbl attack (can't remember which comes after which). Made level 17 or 18 and went on a Roadtrip with Nell, a druid guildie (level 13 and batshit crazy) toward some dungeon raid in the Commons (think mummies, fetid rats, skellies, locked doors and a Well with player-made corpse pile at bottom). By the time we made it to Highkeep I'd lost 2 levels. Then died in roughly the middle of the Kithicorr zone.

After 14-15 maybe deaths running from Halas to HHK, including the stupid Werewolf and the Goblin Messenger; Hill Giants, Cyclopses and Griffennes, Highland Lions; teh frikkin visibility down to a hair past the toes, total rain for visibility in daylight and so forth; like almost Zero Sense Heading and no landmark for guidance etc etc, Bandits on the road ..yada yada... yada yada.. the CR made Tolstoy's "War and Peace" look like a light novella. Kissane's skill in Hand to hand went up quite a bit and the fun factor went into negative. That was the end of Kissane till after Luclin.

I made a druid, Mistyglen, around December '99 and in 5-6 months got him to 50 (about the time the cap went to 60). My credit card went on life support and I was out of game for 6 months. Came back and Velious opened. Another 6 months out of game with an ailing credit card followed Velious, and again after Luclin (almost 12 months) and short periods after the PoP expansion and again after LoY, LDoN, GoD. By the time OoW came I played mostly a Beastlord and Ranger. I gave up trying to progress a single main, gradually the emarr player-base fragmented away such that the generation from my level range (Dec. '99) that still remained were but a handfull. Each time I came back something had left the game. I hardly knew or remembered who I'd used ta knew, the zones that were natural level progressions became graveyards of abandoned content. Something I had loved about the game died and progressively faded away. Like the generation of players that had started EQ with me in Halas and Surefall Glade.

Today I am a social sciences student at La Trobe uni (Bundoora campus), my right hand is in plaster with the pinkie wired together just behind the knuckle. A certain ass hat neighbor half my age, and same height and weight has not bothered me again ..since I busted da pinkie... odd how things correlate. EQ has been behind me around 4 years ago perhaps. I am still in the same x1 BR flat and I'm an old bloke, grey-bearded, thoughtful and solitary.

im basically Marty McFly from back to the future. i started eq in february or march 1999, i had a shitty job. shitty car and was single. fast forward 10 years. ditto shitty job/car/relationships. only difference instead of being an uberguild shaman im a GDI (god damned independent) Undead (duh) lv 80 warrior on Rexxar in WoW. no longer have time to raid all night and day and really have no desire to do so anymore, though i miss a lot of my Emarr friends and i miss many of the emarr moments we had. those things cant be reproduced in WoW or any other game ive come across since i quit back in 2004. i guess it will remain a weird moment in my life. Starz keeps showing this movie called The New Guy and one of the characters is some fat black kid who is obsessed with EQ. to this day i can tell the scriptwriter never played EQ. one line goes. Wow man you just reached the 50th level of Kunark!" i was like uh wha? is that supposed to be make sense?
here at 3:37http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3B11utXDJYw

dummies. anywho i guess ill go back to lurking again. have a good summer all.

Then - 1999
I was 15 and in high school
I had no kids (I hope duh?)
I was single and probably high
I was living at home with my parents, brothers in Toronto Canada
I drove around on a bike or skateboard

Now
I am 30
I have two kids (4 & 2)
I've been together with my wife for a good 10 years
I live with my wife, kids and 3 cats in Vienna Austria (Europe, no Australia)
I drive a 2013 Seat Leon (Europeans will know this car, and my wife drives it....)
My wife and I are back (again) playing wow... Addicting damn game.

Shylodog I think i played with you on EQ, Was your wife at the time named Charlene? I now play ArcheAge and you crossed my mind. If this is you HI!!! Hope you are doing well.

Kim
I played a druid named Keyara and a rogue forgot her name..

Hey! Yep, that's me! I'm still sad we all never got the chance to meet up when we were in Anaheim.

Oddly enough, I got into an accident today after I picked my son Maddox up from daycare. We're all ok, but the van is likely totaled. It's been a long, weird day. But is totally cool after seeing your post!

Hope all is well with you and yours!

-Chip

__________________
Shylodog Wamphyri
66 Arch Convoker
(Retired)

Originally Posted by Hormadrune

Write it down- Chuk made me lolirl

Originally Posted by Drysdale

To bumbleroot: Know what? You're right. I DID misread your statement and I DO apologize.

Then:
Started EQ in October 2000 (Velious Era) after moving to Colorado from Canada. Started playing a dwarf warrior, Karthanon.
Married, no kids at the time. Got a border collie from the Boulder Humane Society.
Had a 1999 Nissan Altima.
Rented.
Was 28. And had hair.
Worked at IBM Boulder (contractor, then hired on)

Now:
42 years old (Life, the Universe, and Everything).
Still married to same woman. She's put up with a lot of my crap.
2 girls (11 and 8). Oldest starting to act like a full teenager, getting on my nerves.
Have a 2009 Mitsubishi Outlander and 2002 Chrysler Sebring JXi convertible.
Moved back to Canada in 2003. Worked from home from 2003 to 2012 with IBM until I was laid off. Worked in Fort McMurray for 6 months, then RCMP for a year. Back in tech now as Unix Sysadmin with a telecom. Much prefer tech than doing 911 Dispatch for the RCMP.
Different dog (bichon frise, as oldest daughter is allergic to pet dander). Same dog neuroses.
Left EQ for 2 years, but now back in it, subscribed. Yeow.
Play a Ranger (Arvarien) that I started back in 2001. Wife started playing then too, but I box her original druid and now she plays a mage (chosen when Heroics when live).
Missing left index finger from first knuckle up after poor judgement with Skilsaw. Relearning typing is great.
Hair is disappearing and going white. Dang you, Time.

Lived alone in an apartment 3 blocks from work and half a block from the bar I frequented.

Work: government job doing desktop support for about 1000 clients

Was into moderate/heavy use of cocaine.

Now:

Age 38 (39 end of July)

Met my commonlaw partner in March of 2000 and still happily together.

Bought the freehold townhome next to my partner 3 years ago and we opened it up to make one unit.

Work: Same government job(yay security!) but now I'm doing user account management for about 20,000 clients

EQ addiction was > cocaine addiction(I didn't like my characters dying so much, which tended to happen when I played "high") Kicked the cocaine bit and hung around EQ until March of 2008.

Yes, I figure EQ probably saved my life.

Now addicted to WoW.

Some updates since 2009:

turning 44 this week

still with partner I met in March of 2000

no kids(yay!)

same job and home (yay!)

quit smoking on Sept 11, 2009

still drug free and mostly alcohol free(I hate the way I get when I get drunk - so now it's maybe a glass of wine with dinner once a month if that. Beer is now out of the question (see below))

still playing WoW (alt-itis has me with 23 max level chars now)

I had been diagnosed clinically depressed for years and docs were considering to put me on Welbutrin. End of Jan 2014 I discovered I had an intolerance to wheat. Within a week of trying gluten free, depression went away. Really? That's all it fucking was? Geez. Since then I've finally got energy and started up with a circuit training class and eating way healthier. I've shed about 40 pounds since then. Still want to lose another 20-30 but not going to kill myself doing it. It's a slow process and not beating myself up over it anymore like I used to.

still have my hair(although I keep it buzzed) More gray popping in but nothing major. Still way more pepper than salt.

Started EQ ‘round about October 2001. Rolled my first toon, a mage named 'Shylodog' and kept with him through my time in the game. Also rolled a Shaman, 'Feelicks". Switched to EQ2 November, 2004 after major issues with my guild that I co-led (some issues due to my medication abuse).

29 years old.

Married to my second wife.

One daughter – 5 years old.

Drove an Isuzu Rodeo.

Buying a double-wide manufactured home, while renting a lot in a park.

Living in Reno, NV.

Worked at CompUSA as the Manager of Technical Services.

Now:

No longer play online games (and no longer take my prescription pain meds).

Soon to be 37 years old.

Married to my third wife.

One daughter (lives with her mom) – 13 years old, two step-sons (one is 18 and lives in Washington, the other is 8 and lives week-on/week-off with us), and a new baby boy due this October.

Drive a 2004 Dodge Ram 1500.

Renting a 3bd 2½ba house.

Living in Reno, NV.

Working for the state of Nevada at the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine as an IT Technician IV.

Time. It just keeps moving on, amiright?

Still not playing online games.

Just turned 42.

Still married to my third wife.

One daughter (still lives with her mom) – 18 years old and doesn't know what she's going to do in life, two step-sons (one is 23 and just moved to Tennessee, the other is 13 and lives week-on/week-off with us), and son who will turn 5 this October.

Drive a 1994 Toyota Camry. Don't ask. (I knew you wouldn't)

Renting a 2bd, 2ba apt.

Living in Reno, NV.

Working for the state of Nevada at the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine as an IT Technician V.

Bald now and my beard is 80% gray. This getting old stuff is getting old.

__________________
Shylodog Wamphyri
66 Arch Convoker
(Retired)

Originally Posted by Hormadrune

Write it down- Chuk made me lolirl

Originally Posted by Drysdale

To bumbleroot: Know what? You're right. I DID misread your statement and I DO apologize.

Married, no children, 2 golden retrievers (both female, age 1 and 5), own our home

Marketing research profession

Drive a 2013 Chevy Equinox

Living in Illinois

Rarely drank, don't smoke, don't gamble or do drugs

Still play a cleric as my main

Sporting an EQ Tattoo on my wrist (thanks to SoE Live 2014)

Been in only a few guilds in 13 years (Protectors of Kindred Souls, non guilded Ronin member of Gathering of Banners, Primal Evolution - who merged to a new guild called Resolution of Erollisi Marr, Valorguard)